The lives of most of the founders remain obscure. By far the best known, a native Latvian who wrote a lengthy profile of Mussolini’s son-in-law for Esquire in 1937, would go on to publish a National Enquirer article titled “Space Alien Baby Found Alive, Say Russians.” He also reportedly lost an arm at some point between establishing the Golden Globes and his death.

The first awards ceremony was held in 1944 on the lot of the studio that distributed the best picture-winning film (20th Century Fox and “The Song of Bernadette,” respectively), and it is this level of integrity that has characterized the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ever since.